More Bad 'Luck'

A senior ex-staffer at American Humane Association is suing AHA for
having fired her after she reported abuse of horses on the set of the HBO
racehorse drama series Luck.

In March 2012, HBO cancelled the series after a third horse died on the
set – in this case the horse was euthanized after she had become spooked and
had reared up, fallen backwards and injured her head.

Barbara Casey, who worked as the director of production in the AHA's film
and television unit, says that abuse was endemic on the set. She says the
AHA observed drugged horses, as well as underweight and sick horses, being
routinely used for work on the show, and that horses were deliberately
misidentified by producers so that animal safety reps couldn't keep track of
medical histories. She cites a necropsy report showing that one horse who
died during filming of a March 29, 2011, racing scene had degenerative
arthrosis and other pathologies that made him "unsuited for use in filming
racing scenes."

Casey says that AHA thwarted her efforts to enforce the organizations own
animal safety standards, that they allowed HBO to violate the group's safety
standards, and that they refused to report abuses to authorities.

The lawsuit, which was made public by The Hollywood Reporter, also names
HBO as a defendant, saying that "the production defendants engaged in
ongoing, systematic and unlawful animal abuse and cruelty toward the horses
on the set of Luck."

In one example, Casey says that after a horse named Hometrader died, the
AHA actively interfered with efforts to rectify the situation. "AHA told its
representatives not to document [Hometrader's] death because he was killed
during a summer hiatus from filming and therefore did not count."

HBO gave Hollywood Reporter the usual blah-blah about how they "took
every precaution to ensure that our horses were treated humanely" etc. etc.

AHA has not yet commented. And at this time, Barbara Casey's lawsuit is,
of course, simply her side of the story. But this is just one more example
of how the AHA keeps going AWOL on its responsibilities.

* Just a few weeks ago, we heard shocking allegations about the deaths of
27 animals who were being used in the making of The Hobbitt. AHA argued that
the deaths took place OFF the set in the areas where the animals were being
housed.

* In 2011, Animal Defenders International (ADI) released truly horrific
video of an elephant being tortured in preparation for her appearance in the
movie Water for Elephants. (Again, AHA retorted that they only monitor what
happens ON the set, not OFF the set. But the small, less well funded ADI had
no trouble getting this shocking video.)

* And in August 2011, AHA hosted a special dinner for VIP donors at which
they served scallops, chicken breast and beef wellington.

AHA's signature Good Housekeeping-style label says that “No animals were
harmed during the making of this movie.” And they say that abuses didn't
happen during the actual "making" of these movies. Sort of like Bill
Clinton's famous "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

AHA calls itself "the nation’s voice for the protection of children and
animals." In 1877, when the organization was born, that was certainly true.
Today, sadly, it's a joke.

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